Commontaries

Where we examine both sides of the coin and let the chips fall where they may.It's always heads or tails.You can't honestly decide unless you look at both.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Memphis Talk Radio Takes Another Hit

I was just thinking last week about how talk radio in Memphis has gone to the pitts. I had no idea it was Mike Flemming's last days at WREC. To others it might not be reason for alarm. Maybe because there just aren't a lot of people concerned with whether it is or not. Like Memphis wrestling fans, we are a dying breed. In it's heyday wrestling fans packed the Mid-South Coliseum weekly. Now they doen't even fill a big banquet hall when there is a match. You might have 25,000 dedicated listeners in a city of over half a million people. When I first started listening local talk radio was much more engaging and informative than it is right now. I looked forward to the daily and nightly discussions that were always bound to take place. Now I'm left to listen to whatever is on the air.

To me it's more of a loss in the general sense than him per say. I wasn't a big Mike Flemming fan anyway. I often agreed with his positions but didn't vibe with him as a host. I didn't like the way he talked long enough to pick up on your ideas and then cut you off. They are calling this a layoff and not what I really suspect has happened. The company is simply failing to renew his contract. Unlike many of the cutbacks at the sister station, for him this wasn't just a part-time job. We will never hear the details of exactly what happened. We just know talk radio in Memphis has taken another hit

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Herenton VS. Cohen

This will be the hardest Steve Cohen has had to work since he was elected to congress. Even then it might all be for naught, with him ultimately vacating his Washington address. This had to hit him like a straight line wind. A mass mailing of weekly emails or a visit with his trusty assistant Randy Wade won't take care of this. The tough questions are going to be asked this time. He's been on the news talking about his qualifications and the intelligence of the Memphis voters. He knows that his popularity has soared these last few years due to just the opposite. I can hear it in his voice, he's worried. That normal air of cockiness is noticeably absent. He was so sure up until now he had the seat on lock. He hasn't even been raising money for the 2010 campaign. Mayor Herenton's campaign chest is loaded. He has money left over from the Mayors race.. If this race happens, "supposedly Herenton is just testing the waters". I predict Steve Cohen's story will change real quick. He will experience the same thing the Clinton's did when Hillary ran against Barack Obama. Blacks won't vote for a white candidate no matter what they've done. When a viable black candidate is in the race.

Pirate In Training

The media keeps harping on the fact that this captured robber is poor and a minor. Though he doesn't speak any English, He is sophisticated enough to try and be deceitful. Somebody is lying to the police about his name and age. There are two versions of both circulating at this point. His version and that of his mother. Are we supposed to be sorry because we foiled this young thief's initiation? His mother claimed he was duped by gangsters with money. Drugs or the lure of quick, easy money is usually what drives people to commit crimes anyway. So that doesn't make this case unique. It's also very doubtful the gangsters sought him out. What would have happened if he had got away? Probably that same sobbing mother appealing to the president to release her son. Would have been in Somalia spending the loot. We didn't catch some teenager with a fake I.D. buying beer. He was a pirate in training.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Dueling Divas

Jennifer Vs. Jennifer

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Pagan Pacifist President

We know very little about the president before he ran for office or his childhood. I would love to talk to someone who knew Barack Obama as a child. This is not scientific or anything, but history backs me up on this. Look at those adults you knew when they were children. I strongly believe men are just a mirror image of how they were as children. Usually they are just a bigger version with money. I would be willing to bet Obama was a boy who tried to get along with everybody. He was an interracial child growing up in a time when it wasn't acceptable everywhere, let alone popular to be of mixed descent. Being a interracial child growing up with pronounced black features in a white community didn't put him in the running for the most popular boy in school. It seemed to work to his advantage because it made him studious.

I didn't vote for President Obama, but I don't think he's as bad as his critics would have you think. Probably for the first time in his entire life he has the final say. He is recognized as the undisputed leader of the most powerful country in the world. Even when he headed the Harvard Law review. It was more about being a mediator than a leader. I'm not so sure I want a leader who is gifted in the art of compromise. You have to stand for something, or you'll end up falling for anything. He is a victim of blind ambition. Let's just be honest Who wouldn't want to be the one to save the world and straighten out this mess? That's why he's going everywhere apologizing to everyone who has a beef with the United States. That's his answer to foreign relations. He honestly thinks he can do something his 42 (Grover Cleveland held the office twice non-consecutively) predecessors couldn't.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Don't Judge And You Will Be Judged

I'm sure Judge Carolyn Wade-Blackett would agree with that statement now. She has been publicly reprimanded for taking seven years to do something that's only allowed a year. Not judging others only works in church not the courtroom. It doesn't apply to those being paid to uphold the law. Judges need to act dependably and swift. Their response has already been determined for them by the voters and the courts. I think this is another example of legislating from the bench. I would bet this judge is against the death penalty.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Farewell To A Foot Soldier

This is what I consider another nail in the coffin of COGIC and it's future in the city of Memphis. The seeds planted by the Mason and Patterson families have finally been pruned away. Though he wasn't a family member he was still connected somewhat. Dating back to the organization's founder, Bishop C.H.Mason. As a young man Porter was his chauffeur.Bishop W.L. Porter was one of those foot soldiers tirelessly working with little fanfare while others gained national notoriety. Bishop W.L. Porter was one of the final limbs on the tree connecting the COGIC hierarchy to this city. His son Brandon is reaping the benefits of his faithfulness. He organized what has now become one of the largest congregations in this city. He has more to do with the convocation staying here all these years, than people really know. I have never heard any of his sermons so I don't know him as a rousing speaker, but I've always heard his name. He was to the COGIC, what Ralph Abernathy was to the SCLC.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

No More Memories Made In Memphis

After 102 years of holding their annual Holy Convocation in Memphis. The saints have decided to leave for what is supposed to be a better deal. The 2010 convocation will be held in the city of St. Louis Mo.,the city on the bluff. I think this is a decision both parties,Memphis and the COGIC will regret. When you bring 35 million dollars to a city's economy annually, you should expect some perks. I can't say I blame them, they should. On the other hand you can't expect vendors and hotels not to get in on the yearly fest. Some people in the service industry plan their budget around this time of year.

Members of COGIC must know that their new found accommodations are only temporary. If they hold their convention in the same place for one or two years at the most, the respective city will adjust and become equally expensive or worse.. This indicates a lack of resourcefulness or laziness on the part of the organization. T0 many of the saints, Memphis should be like a second home. In 100 years they should have developed some community ties and business relationships that can't be so easily severed. With Memphis being the headquarters of such a large organization, they shouldn't just be able to so easily just pick up and leave. Someone said Memphis was like the COGIC's Jerusalem. Those calling the shots don't feel that way. They are leaving their homeland like gypsies?

The city's nose isn't completely clean in this matter either. Not so much the city itself, but the businesses and workers. Those people speaking on behalf of the city, aren't in charge of the peoples minds and pockets. They can't force the workers to smile or the saints to tip them. It's not something the Mayor and City Councilman control. Many of those same people complaining about them now will have changed their story by 2011. You don't miss your water until your well runs dry. When you read the history of the COGIC, a lot of it was made here. If nothing changes. There will be no more memories made in Memphis.

American Idol Could Use Her

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Was Josh Pastner Part Of The Plan

Don't get me wrong, when I don't join in and sing out this new coaches praises. I don't blame Josh Pastner for taking advantage of the situation placed before him. It's just that the more I find out about this latest development,. It just looks like part of the ongoing swindle. He probably has been preparing for this opportunity every since his days as a walk-on player at the University of Arizona.What better place for him to be in right now professionally? What a way to make millions in the basketball game without being able to hit the three point shot snag a rebound or dunk I just have some long standing issues with the University Of Memphis basketball program itself that has nothing to do with the new coach. Therefore I am always more critical than the average fan of their actions and watch them very closely.

I read this article that was written just a year ago before Pastner came to Memphis that I found quite interesting. http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/recruit/84827.php I also heard somebody refer to a little publicized relationship between John Calipari and SEC commissioner Mike Silve that indicates there may have been a whiff of the Kentucky/Calipari deal already floating around before it actually happened. If that's the case Pastner's appointment might not be such a coincidence after all. The whole search for a new coach in Memphis was kept relatively quiet. They put the feelers out for a few high profile coaches who ultimately chose to build their own programs elsewhere. We also don't know what kind of packages they were offered either. Ultimately we end up choosing a coach with no head coach experience who is supposedly a top notch recruiter, and paying him almost a million dollars a year. Since I've always thought R.C. Johnson was double dealing anyway Was Josh Pastner part of the plan?.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Bloods And Crips

After the internationally watched episode that took place with the Somali pirates and the American Navy ship this past weekend. Now the American public has suddenly acquired a wealth of information that we didn't previously know anything about. It appears this has become a lucrative way to make a living in these lawless waters off the coast of Somalia .As it turns out there is even a weekly report warning ship and tug opertors scandalous incidents at sea. Read the report for yourself. http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=308&Itemid=10 Looking at the newsletter's motto, until now this has been regarded largely as a business expense.

With piracy becoming the career choice of many who reside in the Somali region . I think we can safely say it didn't just start last week. These dissident groups are nothing more than ambitious gangs looking to come-up in the world. I have a theory about why they waited until now to make themselves known, but that's just my opinion. The fact is we did what was needed by taking these criminals out. We sent a strong message to gangs that we're still a force to be reckoned with. Unlike suicide bombers, these terrorist don't want to die. Though it is rumored that corrupt government authorities and officials are involved with this practice for a cut of the loot. I said gangs and not armies because these groups operate independently. No one will admit offering these outlaws sanctuary and freedom from prosecution. Only four people kept a whole navy at bey. For a minute there I was worried. The way it was finally resolved restored my faith. Though it was about three days too late. Now I think we are safe from the Bloods and Crips.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Corporal Punishment Or Abuse

I have not been a big fan of charter schools but we have them now and there's nothing we can do. That being said, "All power in place is allowed by God. I support the power in place." Let's make the best of a bad situation. Principal Carl Weathers and the Memphis Academy Of Health Sciences (MAHS) has been under scrutiny lately concerning some of their discipline methods.

Something like this is exactly what I would expect to happen sooner or later. The schools acceptance and impact in the community are largely dependent on the Principal's popularity among the student's parents. This school often plays the role of the surrogate father and the only form of structure in some of these children's lives. I would take an educated guess and say sixty percent of these children if not more,come from single parent homes. It's no wonder that the school and principal's most vocal supporters are women who didn't know what they were going to do before this school came along. They had growing young men and women of which they were losing or had already lost control. They speak of a strong make presence at the school which I don't doubt. Those actively involved fathers are mainly excited about the improved grades their children are getting. I don't think the school's policies are abusive though maybe not mainstream. It's like when the stepfather steps in and disciplines his new wife's child. Outsiders and family members are often critical of what needs to be done.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Orange All Over

The fans at the University Of Tennessee have to be feeling real good about their basketball coach right now. Coach Bruce Pearl signed a six year deal that lays the foundation for what I think will be an even more successful program. He even got raises for his staff. Bruce Pearl is orange all over.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Madoff In Memphis

I think we are the victims of an elaborate Ponzi scheme and the take has gotten bigger and nobody is going to jail. John Calipari has made promises to Memphians and he's leavimg town before he makes good on them. While R.C. Johnson was renegotiating his contracts and getting him yearly raises. He should have negotiated better protection for the city''s investment. Instead of the mere $200,000 Kentucky is paying to buy him out of his contract with Memphis. Considering the amount of money involved, the university should be getting a windfall as well.

I have mixed emotions about John Calipari leaving Memphis for the coaching job at Kentucky. It's like when Barack Obama won the presidency. I didn't support him but it was hard to be unhappy about something that everyone around me was celebrating. I'm not that upset about him leaving, I think he was overpaid anyway. He did leave us some good memories though. He gave us ground chuck and we paid for steak.